Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Turn On the Heat!

I've been reading here and there on the net about cartoon music and how the various composers made use of their respective studio libraries as well as composing original material for the cartoon itself. One cartoon which uses a song from a film which was produced for a different studio is the 1933 Universal cartoon "Hot and Cold". The song, "Turn On The Heat, was written by the song writing team of Desylva/Brown/Henderson for the 1929 Fox Musical "Sunny Side Up".

There's a lot of fun stuff in this cartoon - a shame it was passed over by Universal for the current DVD set 'Woody Woodpecker Vol.2'.

Here is actress Joyzelle Joyner in a publicity still for the production number "Turn On The Heat" from "Sunny Side Up". To cartoon fans this name means nothing but to fans of Famous Monsters of Filmland she is well known as the Martian Queen from the first ever sound Science Fiction film, 1930's "Just Imagine".

I'm curious - are these three beauties from "Hot and Cold" three Joyzelle Joyners? It does seem to bear some resemblance to the Fox number.

Hubba Hubba!

The year following "Sunny Side Up" DeSylva, Brown and Henderson wrote the score of Fox's "Just Imagine": a sci-fi musical which would form the basis of the show "Futurama" and influence practically every sci-fi futuristic city movie of the past 30 years! I have yet to hear a single EFX artist, or artist from "Futurama", admit publicly to the influence of "Just Imagine".

This really insane scene from "Just Imagine" too ended up in a Universal Picture: the Flash Gordon serials which began with "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" in 1938. I wonder ... I guess Fox sold Universal the full rights to both films? Did Fox simply abandon them (both flopped) leaving the struggling Universal to scoop them up? What was the relationship between the two studios?

2 comments:

Hello, You say that "Here is actress Joyzelle Joyner in a publicity still for the production number 'Turn On The Heat' from 'Sunny Side Up'. I'm a big Joyzelle fan, but I didn't know that she appeared in this film. Although this photo does look like her, the film credits (on imdb) lists this song as "Sung by Sharon Lynn and danced by chorus." Do you have a copy of this photo that states it is indeed Joyzelle Joyner, or how do you know it's her? Thanks, Don

I believe it's a mistake which I should have fixed ages ago. The photo is attributed to Joyner in a Greg Theakston article the Forrest Ackerman magazine 'Wonderama'. I've since seen an alternate photo from the same session on ebay (original vintage) which states it's another actress. The ebay photo was likely correct but I don't know for sure. Thanks for stopping by!

"During the span of years from 1914, I have made efforts to retain the "cartoony" effect. That is, I did not welcome the trend of the industry to go "arty". It was, and still is, my opinion that a cartoon should represent, in simple form, the cartoonist's mental expression. In other words the "animated oil painting" has taken the place of the flashiness and delightfulness of the simple cartoon.

In my opinion, the industry must pull back. Pull away from the tendencies toward realism. It must stay in it's own backyard of "The Cartoonist's Cartoon." The cartoon must be a portrayal of the expression of the true cartoonist, in simple, unhampered cartoon style. The true cartoon is a great art in it's own right. It does not need the assistance or support of "Artiness." In fact, it is actually hampered by it." - Max Fleischer